Nathan found the others at the kitchen door.
They had come up from the barge as soon as the tower turned grey. Faen told him so later, in a rush, with the words falling over each other. Just before sunrise, a sound had come down to the smugglers' dock that none of them had heard in a year, the sound of a whole city talking at once, and they had waited at the water's edge, hardly daring to hope, until at last the elf looked up and saw the black tower changing colour. Rose had led them up through the storeroom and the kitchen, because she knew the way better than any of them.
Now they stood together in the doorway, staring at him. Faen had his notebook clutched against his chest, and Edmund had a hand on the frame, and Amelia, with her wrists still tied in front of her, stood a little apart from the rest. Agnes was at the front, with her daughter close behind her.
For a long moment nobody spoke.
